Retro Gaming Friday

I have a lot games, most of them are retro games. There are a lot more that I have played but for some reason I don’t have anymore. I tell you that to explain that sometimes choosing the game for Retro Gaming Friday is quite difficult. This time was such a time. I hemmed and hawed about, I asked Twitter, and then I got home from work. In the mail was Vigilante 8 for the Nintendo 64, a game I had forgotten I’d purchased on eBay.

Vigilante 8 may be more familiar to you by its original name “Not Twisted Metal”. Aww, I’m mean. Twisted Metal knock off or no, Vigilante 8 was a ton of fun and it more than held its own against Twisted Metal. You get to pick a vehicle/driver combo and then it is you against your opponents in an a fight to the death. You have your standard machine guns on your vehicle and you can pick up various other weapons like missile launchers and my personal favorite, the death ray. These weapons would attach to your vehicle which added a nice visual touch. The best part of this game was twofold. First was the multiplayer. It was just never a bad time to hang out with your friends, hop into imaginary vehicles, and shoot each other until mom yelled at you for swearing. The second was that each level had some sort of interaction in it like military planes in the Area 51 level for example. This added a nice touch and it gave this game a little more of its own unique identity.

If you hopped into story mode, you get to play in a alternate 1975 US. Basically speaking there is an oil crisis and you wind up going to war over control of the oil. Good thing nothing like that actually happened. That would be embarrassing. *Awkward silence*. Ok, moving on. Each character had their own unique and generally entertaining ending adding even more to the appeal of this game. There was a sequel to this called Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense that was not so good. They did announce a 3rd game but then they quietly exited the room while we were distracted and we never heard from them again on the subject. Time for a Retro Rating:

TOM’S RETRO RATING: 4 DEATH RAYS OUT OF 5

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About the Author

Tom likes to play video games and chew bubble gum; and he's all out of gum. Check out the rest of his work for VGHC, catch his writes for 1 More Castle, and follow his antics on his own site at ocarinaoftom.com.